USNews & World Report, Thomas Jefferson Street Blog

The Business Community Must Knock Sense Into Republicans

November 29, 2012 RSS Feed Print

Reagan did it as governor and as president. George H. W. Bush did it. Bill Clinton did it.

And each time it brought real benefit to the economy and to the nation’s businesses, large and small.

They all raised taxes, created more revenue. All of them provided targeted tax breaks too, invested in education and infrastructure, cajoled and convinced the American business community that their policies were righting the ship during tough economic times.

This week President Obama is making the case to America’s business community, large and small, that Republicans should not remain in their Grover Norquist handcuffs and Tea Party holiday straight jackets.

The absurd notion that signing a pledge never to raise taxes is the “Republican way” is a form of serious amnesia. Even the first President Bush regretted his hard and fast “read my lips” line that some Norquist-like gnome had put in his 1988 convention speech. Have Republicans not learned that this does not work?

America’s business community surely likes lower taxes, who doesn’t? But they understand that providing a balanced approach to dealing with the deficit is far preferable to economic meltdown. They want a plan. They want a road map. They want stability. What America’s businesses do not want is more chaos, more bickering, more posturing.

[If the business community wants a reasonable deal, that includes a bump in tax rates for the richest 2 percent, they should convey this to the Republicans, and fast. Obama is initiating cuts, $340 billion in Medicare and Medicaid, over $1.1 trillion in discretionary spending, serious reductions. 

If we are going to come to agreement on $4 trillion in savings so that we can pursue a reasonable plan, business should whisper in the ears of Speaker Boehner and his recalcitrant colleagues and help solve the problem. They would have real influence when it really counts.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/video?clipId=8007306&autostart=true

USNews & World Report–Thomas Jefferson Street Blog

Hillary’s Place Is at State

November 21, 2012 RSS Feed Print

One thing is crystal clear: Hillary Clinton has been one of our most extraordinary secretaries of state.

And she is in pretty impressive company—from John Jay to Thomas Jefferson to John Marshall to James Madison to John Quincy Adams to William H. Seward to Cordell Hull to Gen. George Marshall to Dean Acheson. And that doesn’t even count the last 60 years!

She has been one of President Barack Obama’s greatest assets, on the front lines day after day, tireless in her pursuits around the world. But she also has a right to be tired and to want to recharge and step out of the whirlwind. Lord knows she has earned it!

As she shuttles off to the Middle East to attempt personal diplomacy and halt the violence between Hamas in Gaza and Israel, it is patently obvious why she is essential. For the past four years she has juggled so many balls in the air and constantly been in the air, more that any secretary of state, ever. She has been knowledgeable, strong, determined, careful, and most of all, effective.

Whether it has been trade and economic issues, ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, dealing with the complexities of our relationship with China, and all the while dealing with human rights and women’s rights issues, Hillary Clinton has truly been on top of it all.

With all the issues on the domestic economic front, the fiscal cliff, immigration reform, putting together a second term cabinet and White House staff, convincing Secretary Clinton to stay on for six months to a year would be invaluable.

For the past four years she has been able to see to it that President Obama does not have to become his own secretary of state, especially important given how full his plate has been at home. By remaining as secretary into 2013 it would not only help the president, it would be a continued great service to the country and our friends around the world.

USNews & World Report–Thomas Jefferson Street Blog  11/17/2012

Don’t Get Cocky, Dems, the GOP Only Looks Dead

By PETER FENN

November 17, 2012 RSS Feed Print

It seems that after most contentious and controversial presidential elections the death knell is written for the losing political party. This year appears no different—it is the Republicans’ turn.

Here is the argument: The Republicans are anti-Hispanic, antigay, antiwomen, anti-Black, anti-middle-class. They are destined for demographic disaster.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the Republican Party.]

Hogwash. Parties change, candidates change, people in power certainly change.

Think back. In 1964, Republicans were dead, supposedly, thanks to Barry Goldwater. Richard Nixon came back in 1968 and by 1972, and after the drubbing George McGovern took, the Democrats were dead. Oops, after Watergate, the Republicans were dead again—at least until they were very much alive with Ronald Reagan in 1980.

You get the picture: Every time we give a political party the last rights they tend to come to life, even roaring back. This resurrection happens especially if the ruling party rests on its laurels or gets overly cocky. So, here sit the Democrats, proud of their president, impressed by their campaign, and looking forward to many years of basking in the limelight.

Get real. Here are a number of things the Democrats need to do:

1. Better communicate with white, working class, married families. We got creamed this time with white males but also lost white married women. The economy hit many of these families hard and they are looking for faster change in their economic condition.
2. Voters who regularly attend church voted overwhelmingly against Obama. These voters should not be ignored; we can appeal to them with an inclusive, values agenda. They, too, respond to a party that will bring unity by emphasizing that we are all in this together.
3. Make sure that the enthusiasm of young people is not taken for granted or wasted. We need a service-oriented culture that taps into the volunteerism, the commitment, the sacrifice that young people exhibit. I would love to see us move toward universal service for those between 18-25.
4. Expanding education is a universal value. The Democrats must put this front and center in the coming four years. Focus on more kids going to college, post high school training, utilizing the incredible technology at our fingertips, and moving towards a year round school year.
5. Bite the bullet and put forth real reform on entitlements that strengthen our economy and create a retirement system for the 21st century. This is doable if we have the political will. Just as we aren’t in the 1950s anymore on social issues, we aren’t there with Social Security and Medicare either.
6. We have been right to stand up for diversity, for same sex marriage, for immigration reform, for women’s rights, for workers. That is who we are as Democrats and who we should continue to be.

Of course, the devil is in the details, which I will leave to those a whole lot smarter than me.

The Hill Pundits Blog—November 15, 2012

The disappearing rural vote
By Peter Fenn – 11/15/12 04:16 PM ET

There was a lot of talk before the elections about the rural, urban and suburban vote.

Michael Barone wrote that the suburbs were going to carry Romney to a landslide victory … oops, he won with 50.2 percent. No big numbers there for Mitt.

The rural vote was going to be huge and also propel Mitt to a win. You can see from all the maps out there how a vast number of counties went Republican, by a big sea of red. Romney did receive 59 percent of the rural vote, 5 percentage points higher than John McCain did four years ago. But what did this mean?

My friend, Hill Pundit Cheri Jacobus, cited a Republican study that said you could drive 3,000 miles across country, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and only go through Romney Republican counties.

Yes, but the increasing problem for your team, Cheri, is that nobody lives there anymore! We worked with the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution and I confess to having my eyes opened by these very smart people.

What I learned was that 83 percent of America lives in metropolitan areas and the number is continuing to grow. In fact, for the first time in 90 years, cities grew faster than the suburbs last year.

So, just as voters have gone from 87 percent white when Bill Clinton was elected to 72 percent white in 2012, we have seen demographics of the rural/urban-suburban-exurban vote change.

The rural population in America was 44 percent in 1940, 30 percent by 1960, 25 percent in 1990 and less that 20 percent today. We aren’t a bucolic, pastoral nation of small towns anymore. I am not arguing whether that is a good thing or a bad thing but simply stating the fact that you can win 60 percent of the rural vote, look at a nice big red map on your computer, and still get your clock cleaned.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/video?clipId=7957441&autostart=true

http://www.myfoxdc.com/category/234323/fox-5-morning-news

THE HILL PUNDITS BLOG—NOVEMBER 7, 2012

Memo to the Republicans
By Peter Fenn – 11/07/12 03:52 PM ET

At my age, I have lived through, and worked on, a lot of elections. I have seen the highest highs and the lowest lows. I have celebrated when I thought I was about to cry and cried when I thought I was going to be celebrating.

And I have seen the press and the pundits declare one or the other party “dead” after an election, only for it to rise rather quickly from the ashes.

After the Lyndon Johnson landslide victory against Barry Goldwater in 1964, the Republican Party, as we knew it, was declared finished. Four years later, Richard Nixon, who was all but dead and buried after his loss to Pat Brown in 1962 for governor of California, was elected president of the United States. The Republican Party was back in full force.

After George McGovern won only one state in 1972, it was the end of the Democratic Party.

By 1974, after Watergate, the Democrats came roaring back and once again, the obituary was written for the Republicans — until Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory over Jimmy Carter in 1980.

You get the picture.

As hard as it is for me to do it, rather than bask in last night’s election victory, I want to offer some advice to the Republican Party. It is time for you to get a grip. You are not finished; you are not necessarily destined to the political trash heap of history. But you are in trouble, deep trouble, unless you change.

The right-wing straightjacket, Tea Party express, does not suit you well. You have kicked away Senate seats by nominating the extreme elements of your party, in 2010 and 2012. You have created a primary election system dominated by the most outrageous in your party.

If you continue to be the anti-gay party, the anti-Hispanic party, the anti-environment/climate change party, as well as the extremist party on a woman’s right to choose, on contraception, on equal pay for equal work, you are doomed for many years to come.

You are becoming a pariah with younger voters, you have driven minorities out the door, you have relegated yourselves to the party of the angry white male. Not a good place to be in the 21st century, as angry white males are quickly becoming a smaller and smaller minority.

To my friends who are Republicans, I suggest you might want to have the battle within your party sooner rather than later with the extremist conservatives.

The train has left the station on many of these issues, and the demographics, they are a-changin’. You don’t have a lot of time to embrace moderation and truly become the Republican Party that voters used to respect and admire — a party of reasonable conservatives like Dick Lugar, Bob Bennett and, yes, the old bulls like Everett Dirksen, Howard Baker, Hugh Scott.

This is a tough battle within the Republican Party, but it is past time to reject those who blindly sign Norquist pledges on taxes, or insist on human life amendments, or deny global warming or keep on bashing Hispanics and gays. This should not be the platform of the Republican Party or in any way embraced by its leadership.

It is time for the Republican Party to change, and change fast. It would be good for you and good for the country.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/video?clipId=7903773&autostart=true